Amelia Rivera is a three-year-old girl who desperately needs a kidney to survive.  However, unlike most patients, she was denied even the chance to try and find a matching kidney. Finding a donor is not an easy job. There are always more patients waiting for a kidney than there are willing and able donors. But there is hope. After a few tests needed to find a match are done, a kidney patient is placed on a waiting list. The wait can be long and it depends or urgency, age, and other medical problems. If a willing stranger happens to match that patient, a donation is possible. If the stranger happens to also match another patient who is in more urgent need of a transplant, or higher on the list, the patient must wait for a different donor. Kidneys can also come from deceased donors.  Even while on the list the patient is encouraged to try and find a donor on his own as this can sometimes shorten the wait time.  

Many patients in need of a kidney never actually find a donor even though they are on a list. However, they still have the security that, while on the list, there are people out there who are trying to help them find a match. Amelia Rivera and her family are on their own in this battle.

Malignant tumors are an increasing problem in the world today. Cancer and heart attack are the top two causes of death around the globe. However there is another type of tumor that does not get all the attention it deserves. Benign tumors are non-cancerous but dangerous. One type of benign tumor is the giant cell tumor of the bone. Although they occur in only one person per million a year, their removal is costly and complicated. In rare cases the tumor can expand to the lungs making the condition life threatening.

For a Vietnamese man named Nguyen Duy Hai, the fight against the giant cell tumor of the bone ended successfully last Friday. He is now recovering in the intensive care unit of the Ho Chi Minh City’s FV Hospital. The tumor got its name from the way the cells look under a microscope where many giant cells are seen. These cells are formed by the fusion of several individual cells into a single, large, cell. Just how large had Nguyen Duy Hai’s tumor got? Well, it weighted at twice the man’s body weight, more specifically 180 pounds. Post-operation it was estimated that the tumor was in fact 200 pounds. It took 12 hours of surgery to remove the tumor in its entirety.

Myths about women’s anatomy clarified…

It’s not hard to tell that today’s baby deliveries have changed severely from those of yesterday. Doctors have the technology to perform surgery just in case there are any complications during labor or beforehand. C-sections, medically termed as cesarean sections, are becoming more commonplace.